Fight for Life
by redsandman99
Summary: John Cena gets into a car wreck and finds himself in a place he never knew existed. And he soon learns that turning his back on the ultimate battle of good and evil is harder than he thought.
1. Chapter 1

Fight for Life

Summary: John Cena gets into a car wreck and finds himself in a place he never knew existed. And he soon learns that turning his back on the ultimate battle of good and evil is harder than he thought.

Chapter 1

John Cena was alone. It was an odd feeling for him. For the past year he was used to driving with a full car. Up front with him would be his girlfriend Mickie James. In the back would be Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho and Cody Rhodes. They traveled everywhere together. It was always fun and everyone was happy.

But then things changed. Jeff got suspended for sixty days. Chris was out two weeks with an injury. Bob Holly was being a jackass and making Cody travel with him until they lost the tag team belts (which Cody was hoping would happen soon). And Mickie--well, he had caught her cheating on him with Randy Orton. Stupid whore.

John was currently driving to a house show in Denver. He didn't feel like flying with everyone else. Everybody in the company knew what happened with Mickie and Randy. It was terrible. And the worst part was, Mickie and Randy didn't even act ashamed. They flaunted their new relationship.

He was driving through western Iowa now. The gas tank was running on low. He scanned around for a gas station. There was none in sight. Sighing, he hoped one would come up soon.

The car literally came out of nowhere. It slammed into the side of John's car and sent him flying off the road. His car flipped over several times before coming to a stop upside down, twenty feet away. He groaned in pain. His head was throbbing and he could feel blood dripping down the side of his face.

Somebody ripped the car door off it's hinges. "I told you there was only one in here!" a female voice complained.

"Shut up," a man replied. "We can share."

John suddenly found himself being ripped right out of his seat. The man and the woman slammed him against his car--only they weren't human. They couldn't be. Their eyes were bright yellow, they had long fangs and there was something seriously wrong with their faces. He tried to fight them off but they were too strong. He closed his eyes and braced himself as they inched their way to his neck.

"Hey!" some other girl yelled. "That is not nice!"

John was thrown violently to the ground. Groaning and coughing up blood, he opened his eyes. A very tall (she had to be at least six foot four) teenaged girl was fighting off the two freaks. She had long black hair and had on the tightest leather pants he had ever seen in his life. She pulled out a piece of wood and stabbed the freaks in the heart. They each turned to dust.

"What the fuck?" he muttered.

The girl came over to him. "Dude are you okay?"

He shook his head. "What is going on?"

She looked back at the two piles of dust. "Oh I'm Jackie and I just saved you from two vampires." She looked at his car. "So tell me, uh…was there anyone else in that car?"

He couldn't answer her. He tried to, but shock and pain took over and he passed out right there in the middle of the field.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

John woke up two hours later in a hotel room. He groaned in pain. His entire body was in agony. His arm was in a sling, his ribs were taped up and there was a bandage on his head. It took him a moment to remember the car crash and getting attacked by vampires. Wait a minute…vampires couldn't be real. They couldn't. But each time his brain tried to tell him that it sounded less and less true.

He got out of bed. He had to go find that Jackie girl. She could explain things to him. He opened the door and started walking around. "Hello?" he called out. "Anyone home?" he felt light headed and he had to stop for a minute so he wouldn't pass out. "Jackie?"

"She's downstairs. I could go get her if you want."

John turned around to see who was talking to him. That turned out to be a mistake because it scared the crap out of him. It was an orange demon with long fingernails and sharp teeth. It had on people clothes, which just made the situation stranger. "Jackie!" he screamed. He backed away and looked for an escape route. The demon was blocking the stairs so they wouldn't be any help. "Jackie help!"

The demon looked surprised. "Now wait a minute, I'm not going to hurt you."

Jackie and some guy wearing green pants came running up the stairs. "What the hell is going here?" Jackie asked.

"He thinks I'm going to hurt him," the demon said. "Tell him I won't hurt him Andy."

Andy was the guy in the green pants. "Dude, this is Razor. He's a good demon. He likes people, unless they order slime demons to live in his basement."

Razor shuddered. "I hate slime demons. They're all icky and gooey and gross."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, we know." She grinned at John. "Yeah, sorry about leaving you alone up here. There was a zombie problem that had to be taken care of."

"Zombies?" John said in shock. This was getting weirder by the minute. "Zombies are real?"

"You're better off assuming everything's real," Jackie said. She came over to him and patted him on his good shoulder. "Zombies, vampires, demons, witches, ghosts and everything in between. Now since you haven't grown up here in good old Apocalypse City, you wouldn't know that, but…"

"Wait what?" he interrupted her. "Apocalypse City? There's no such place as Apocalypse City."

She sighed. "You're here now so you better start believing it. And no it's not a nickname. We'll explain everything over dinner."

John followed her downstairs. He wasn't sure what else to do. If what she was saying was true, he sure as hell wasn't staying here alone. Once he was downstairs, he learned that Andy was Jackie's brother, and was introduced to Jackie's little sister Christina, Jackie's cousin Damien, Jackie's other cousin Leslie, Jackie's Aunt Clarissa, Cody, Robin, Chris Andy's boyfriend Tony and Rupes. That last name left him a little confused.

"It's a nickname," Rupes explained as they all headed to the kitchen. "My middle name is Rupert so I've been mocked for pretty much my whole life. And if you get confused by who all lives here, don't worry about it. I've given up keeping track of everyone a long time ago."

"Okay," John said slowly. He sat down at the table and was handed a piece of pizza. "So why haven't I heard of a place called Apocalypse City before?"

Everyone looked at Jackie. "What?" she whined. "You're not going to make me explain everything are you?"

"It's your turn," Tony said.

Jackie groaned. "Oh fine." She turned to John. "Okay, listen up. Apocalypse City has been in existence long before America was ever discovered. I don't know for sure how long but I don't really care. What I do know was that first there were demons and then people came. These weren't the normal people; these were like sorcerers and witches and shit like that. A lot of the demons were banished out of this dimension and the others adapted, which made it possible for regular humans to live here. Of course we're not actually normal because we're always fighting to live and some people think we have hidden powers or shit like that. I do, but that's because of something else."

"Jackie just tell him why he's never heard of this place," Rupes said.

"Alright, alright, just quit hurrying me. John, to be quite frank, the government does not like us. They have tried to control us because they think this place is dangerous. And it is, but we govern ourselves. There's always evil and there's always good around to beat the evil back. And when the government actually tried to get in and occupy us, good and evil banded together and created the scariest mob mentality ever seen."

"The government's tried twice," Chris added. "Once in the seventies and the other about three years ago. A lot of people died and let me tell you, it was mostly on their side. And when my brother's terrorist group pulled a Columbine at the school, some of the members actually got lynched."

John just felt more confused than ever. "What?"

Jackie sighed. "Look, it'll take forever to explain that because 99.9 percent of our stories have another back story I would have to explain. And normally I would try to do that, but my pizza will get cold if I do. Just know this: according to the United States, Apocalypse City doesn't officially exist. They act like the three million citizens here do not exist. We have the largest birth and death rate anywhere in the world, but nobody but us recognizes it. It's a dangerous place to live, but I guarantee you that you're safer with us. The police can't be counted on so everyone turns to me for some reason."

"Because you're scary," Leslie told her. She smiled at John. "Believe me, you'll get used to how freaky this place is after awhile. I did and I was the bitchiest bitch in Greenwich."

"Now you're the bitchiest bitch in Apocalypse City," Jackie said.

John tried to eat as Leslie and Jackie started to argue. He still wasn't sure what to think about all this. He had been attacked by vampires and was eating dinner with a demon, so it all seemed possible. But this still felt like one fucked up dream. Either way, this was one fucked up situation that could only get more interesting.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

John woke up the next morning to something climbing on his bed. That was definitely strange because he didn't remember inviting anyone to join him. He opened his eyes and found a shirtless guy with green hair studying him closely. "What the hell?" he yelled.

The guy jumped away and ran to the corner, muttering incoherently the entire time. Jackie came in a split second later. "Spike! Where in the hell have you been? We've been looking for you for three days!"

"He's a friend of yours?" John asked. He sat up, wincing at the aches and pains that were leftover from the car wreck.

Jackie nodded. "Yeah. He spent six years in a hell dimension and hasn't really adjusted since he got back. He spends the majority of time in his room or hiding out in the caves down by the beach."

"Your beaches have caves?"

"They didn't until about ten years ago. There was an apocalypse and things got sunken in and caves were created. It's actually kind of cool to go down there and explore a little. We could go down there later if you want."

John nodded. It wasn't like he had anything else to do today.

Spike began to rock back and forth. "Demons are down there. Look like cats but they spit fire. Fire's bad. Pretty, but bad. I don't like the fire."

"He babbles like that sometimes," Jackie explained when she saw the look on John's face. She pulled Spike up to his feet. "He'll talk normally again eventually. I hope." She patted him on the head. "Spike, what did you do to your hair? It's all green."

Spike shrugged. "I don't know. I'm hungry." He pulled away from Jackie and left the room.

"I know I just met him, but I have to say, he is the oddest person here."

Jackie grinned at him. "You've been here for less than a day. Are you sure you're ready to stand by such a judgment?"

Suddenly John remembered the house show he had missed last night. People would be wondering where he was. Or would they? Did anyone really care anymore? _No_, a little voice in the back of his head said. _They probably don't_.

"Are you okay John?" Jackie asked. "You kind of got all serious on me."

John shrugged. "I just remembered my job. They're going to be wondering where I'm at."

"Oh yeah, that's a good point. I think your cell phone got broken during the wreck. You want to call them from our phone?"

John thought about it. He knew that the responsible thing would be to call, tell them what had happened (leaving out the getting attacked by vampires part of course) and tell them he would be there as soon as he could. But what did he have to go back to? A locker room full of people who were talking about him behind his back? An ex-girlfriend who was flaunting the fact that she had cheated on him? None of that sounded appealing. "No," he decided. "Let them wonder. I'm fine right here."

Jackie grinned. "Shibby. Let's go get something to eat."

They went downstairs to the kitchen. Rupes was there, banging his head against the table. John frowned. "What's wrong with you?"

Rupes didn't have to answer. The problem came barging in a second later. Robin and Damien were screaming incoherently at each other, pulling each other's hair and basically having a bitch fight.

"They've been doing that all fucking morning!" Rupes growled. "All fucking morning! I swear to God, I'm going to kill them!"

Jackie patted him on the shoulder. "You want me to take care of it for you?"

Rupes nodded. "Please. Just make them stop."

"Alrighty then." She turned around and promptly pulled Robin and Damien apart by the hair. "Stop it!" she yelled. "I don't know what the hell you two are fighting about now, but you better knock it off! If you don't, I'm going to shove my foot so far up your asses they'll come out of your mouths. Understand?"

Robin and Damien nodded. Jackie let them go and they quickly left the room.

John grabbed a bagel and some cream cheese and sat down at the table. "They do that a lot?"

"Oh yeah," Jackie and Rupes said at the same time. Both of them sounded extremely exasperated.

"It's always about nothing," Jackie added. She grabbed a doughnut and sat down next to John. "I swear, those two just need to have sex and get all that sexual tension out in the air. It would make all of our lives much easier."

Rupes groaned and got up. "That's it, I am leaving. I am not listening to your theories on everyone's sex life."

"I could start talking about your LACK of sex life."

John cracked up. He couldn't help it. "It's nice to see you two getting along so well."

Jackie grinned and got up so she could wrap her arms around Rupes's shoulders. "I love my Rupes," she said as she gave the older man a kiss on the cheek. "He's so easy to annoy."

XXXXX

After they ate, Jackie and John went down to the beach by themselves. It was a nice day out, but it wasn't warm enough to swim yet, so the people that were there were either tossing Frisbees around or having a picnic.

"Does everybody here know about vampires and demons?" John asked as they approached the entrance to one of the caves.

Jackie nodded. "Of course they do. There's no way to hide it. Anyone born have known since they were kids. People who move here find out pretty quickly."

"Do a lot of people move here?"

"No, not really. The high mortality rate kind of turns people off. But what people don't realize is that if you stay, there's an excellent chance you'll get laid. All the violence and danger really gets people's motors going."

John raised his eyebrows. "You have a fascination with sex, don't you?"

Jackie shrugged. "I'm just stating a fact. We're constantly in danger so people have lots of sex and then lots of girls get pregnant. It's the circle of life."

"Most circles of life don't involve vampires."

"Every circle of life involves vampires. The only difference here is that they don't hide like they do everywhere else." Jackie pulled a dagger out of her pocket and twirled it around in her hands. "You still got those weapons I gave you?"

John touched the bulge in his pocket that was made up of two stakes and a hunting knife. "Yes."

She grinned. "Good." She grabbed his hand. "Come on. Let's see if we find anything interesting down here."

They went into the cave and walked down through the tunnel. The walls were covered in glowing green bugs. "They're actually kind of pretty," John said.

Jackie nodded. "Yeah and they save me the trouble of lighting this whole place up."

"How would you do that?"

"I know a spell."

"You're a witch?"

She nodded. "I got it from Mom's side of the family. All of my relatives from that side of the family have some kind of power. Christina has visions of the future but a lot of them are old vague and not always helpful." She started playing with her dagger. "Now Andy can actually create fire, which is pretty sweet."

John grinned. That did sound sweet. "What about fighting powers?"

"I've got them, but they're not from Mom. They're from Harvey."

"Who's Harvey?"

"My biological father. He's a psycho part demon that killed my mom and the man I still consider to be my dad. He's tried to kill me a couple of times. It's not a healthy relationship."

"I wouldn't think so. Hey, if he's a part demon, does that mean--"

"Yeah, I'm one too."

"Oh." John processed that information. "If it makes you feel any better, you're the prettiest demon I've seen here."

Jackie smirked. "That's because you haven't seen me in full demon mode. Believe me, things get a lot uglier then." She stopped and grabbed John by the shirt. "You hear that?"

John shook his head. "Hear what?"

Jackie motioned for him to keep quiet and follow her. They crept down into a cavern that turned out to be a sunken church. Inside the church was what looked to be a pack of tigers. But John knew they had to be demons, because most normal tigers did not have bright red eyes and smoke did not come out of their nostrils with every breath they let out.

"Score," Jackie muttered. She grinned at John. "You want to get a crash course in demon fighting?"

He stared at her in shock. "You mean you want the two of us to take on all of them? Are you insane?"

"Uh yeah, actually I am. I'm also the One Woman Wrecking Crew, so I can take them all by myself if you don't want to do it."

He shook his head. There was no way he was going to be able to stand around and do nothing. "Alright, I'm in."

"Shibby." She patted him on the head. "Let's rock and roll."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As it turned out, fighting tiger demon things that could spit out fire was not as easy as it sounded, especially after being in a car wreck the day before. Luckily, Jackie wasn't kidding about being the One Woman Wrecking Crew. It was the most amazing thing John had ever seen. He had never seen anyone fight like her. She was both unbelievably vicious and graceful at the same time.

"John look out!"

John turned around and found one of the demons lunging at him. He ducked down and used the creatures momentum to tackle it and put himself on top. Being careful to keep the demon's head pointed away from him, John managed to stab the demon in the chest. It wasn't easy because the damn thing was putting up a hell of a fight. "How the do you make this look so easy?" he asked Jackie.

"Tons of practice," Jackie replied. She pulled a stake out of her pocket. "Watch this." Without even really aiming, she threw the stake right between one of the last two demon's eyes.

John got his own stake out of his pocket. "Let me try that." He tossed at the stake at the last demon. The blunt side of it hit the demon on the head and bounced off harmlessly to the ground.

"Uh…I don't think you threw it right," Jackie said slowly.

"Really Jackie? How could you tell?"

The demon didn't really take having a stake thrown at it well. It opened its mouth and let out a blast of fire at John. John literally had to jump behind a rock to keep from getting hit. "Jackie!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," Jackie assured him.

John peeked out from behind the rock and saw that Jackie had literally jumped on top of the demon's back. She struggled with it for about a second before snapping its neck. "Ta da!" she said proudly as she jumped back up to her feet.

John sighed and looked around at the six demon corpses on the ground. "We're lucky I'm secure with my masculinity or we would have a serious problem right now."

"Why?" asked Jackie.

"You killed five and I only got one. I know some dudes who would not be taking this well."

Jackie gave him a grin. "Yeah, I've run into a few guys who've had that problem. Most of them get over it."

"And the ones who don't?"

"Well usually I just punch them and leave. I don't take that kind of shit."

John laughed. Despite all of the sudden weirdness being introduced to his life, he found himself enjoying the time he was spending with Jackie. She had a sense of humor, she was confident, independent and gorgeous as hell. "So what are we going to do with these bodies?"

"Nothing," said Jackie. "It's not like I live down here so they can rot for all I care. Oh and while we're near the subject, if you kill something in the hotel, you're taking care of the body. Rupes had to make that rule when we tried to dump all of that responsibility on him."

"How nice of you guys. I'm not sure how he puts up with all of you."

Jackie grinned. "Neither are we. We're still expecting him to snap any day now."

They left the cave and walked back to the hotel. On the way, John noticed how normal everybody seemed. They were going about their every day lives, like nothing was wrong in the world. "It seems so peaceful here right now," he said quietly.

"That'll change soon enough," Jackie muttered.

When they got back to the hotel they found Chris waiting for them outside. They could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong. "What happened?" Jackie asked.

Chris sighed. "A couple of things. One being that the freak Alan Grump escaped from jail and apparently has some apocalyptic ritual planned. But we've got a few hours to find him and stop him."

"Who's Alan Grump?" John asked.

"Cult leader that keeps trying to end the world because he has genocidal tendencies," Jackie explained. She raised her eyebrows at Chris. "But I've got a feeling that's not the worst of the news."

Chris shook his head. "No, it's really not. Cody's mom was just killed and his dad was arrested for it, so yeah, Cody's freaking out right now."

Jackie winced. "Son of a bitch. Where's he at?"

"His room. Christina's in there with him."

Jackie rushed into the hotel, leaving John and Chris alone. John wasn't quite sure what to say. He was the outsider in the situation. He didn't know Cody that well, so he figured he would let Jackie help the guy out.

"I think Cody's more mad than upset," Chris said suddenly. It sounded like he wanted John to understand something very important. "Both of Cody's parents fucked him up pretty badly. That's why he moved into the hotel. Mommy didn't love him and Daddy beat the shit out of him."

John wasn't sure he wanted to know this. "Why are you telling me this?"

Chris shrugged. "I just thought you should know. Knowledge is power you know." He sat down on the bench that was right outside the front door. "Although ignorance can be bliss." He sighed. "So what do you choose? Bliss or power? Or is it possible to have both?"

John frowned. "Are you talking to me or yourself?"

"Both," Chris admitted. "I go off on my own little tangents all the time. Jackie says it's because I'm too smart for my own good."

"Just how smart are you?"

"My IQ is 192."

"Damn. You are smart."

"That's what people say. Although that didn't stop me from being dumb enough to get that girl pregnant at a concert in Kansas City a couple of moths ago." Chris grinned sheepishly and went into the hotel.

John frowned. "Damn. I had him pegged down as a virgin."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A week went by and John found himself quickly adjusting to Apocalypse City. It actually wasn't that bad of a place, once you got past the constant threat of death. In a span of a week, he helped stop three apocalypses and killed all sorts of demons on just regular nights. He felt like he was doing some real good. And he didn't have to look at his cheating girlfriend all the time so that was really good.

He was also learning a lot about his new friends. Jackie was the leader; there was no question about that. Even Rupes and Clarissa went along with her judgment, even though they were the adults. In fighting situations, her strength and kick ass abilities put her in charge. But in any other situation, she was just…Jackie. Charismatic, funny, intelligent--she was the group's rock. She had baggage of course; they all did. But she took the hurt and the pain and made herself stronger because of it.

Rupes was the second in command. After forty years of fighting for his life, he had developed a tired look about him. But John noticed that Rupes had a way with the teenagers, even if it wasn't apparently obvious. He talked to them, listened to them, offered advice but didn't order them around unless it was absolutely necessary. He was the father none of them really had any more. Clarissa didn't really play the mother role to anyone but Leslie though. At first, John didn't really know what her role in the group was. Then he overheard her and Rupes talking one night and everything became clear: she was Rupes's strength. As snotty and bitchy as she could act, there was a fiery, genuine woman hidden underneath there.

The others had their role too. Andy was the overprotective big brother. Tony was the cool one, the spiritual guru who always had some lovely piece of advice to spout off. Leslie was the brat that annoyed everyone around her. Robin was the eternal optimist, the one who found a reason to smile even during the end of the world. Chris, the unexpected soon to be father, was the brains (obviously). Damian was the smart ass, the loud obnoxious guy who reminded John a lot of Chris Jericho. Cody was the dark one, the pessimistic one who needed to be saved from himself. And last, but not least, there was Christina and Spike. The babies of the group. Of course they weren't actually babies. Christina was the most mature sixteen year old John had ever met, but her age gave her the short end of the stick. As for Spike…well he was nuts and couldn't always remember to take care of himself, so the others helped him out.

So where did that leave John? He wasn't quite sure of his place in the group. They had welcomed him with open arms, there was no doubt about that. But did he really belong with them or was he trying to escape his problems back in the WWE? He didn't know for sure. What he did know was that all of this thinking was making his head hurt. He needed a distraction.

"My baby's Mama is coming in tomorrow," Chris said cheerfully.

Rupes, John, Jackie and Cody looked at him in surprise. They were all sitting in the lobby watching television. "And you don't mention this until now because?" Rupes asked.

Chris shrugged. "We've been busy."

Cody rolled his eyes. "I don't know why you're bringing her here Chris. She'll probably just get killed before she even gives birth to the nerd that is destined to be your child."

Jackie smacked him on the back of the head. "Would you quit being such an asshole? Nobody's baby Mama is getting killed. I'm not letting it happen." She turned to Chris. "Who is this chick anyway? You never talk about her."

"That's because every time I mention her you guys start asking what possessed her to sleep with me. I mean I know I'm a nerd of epic proportions, but I'm not a hideously UGLY nerd of epic proportions."

"He's got a point," John pointed out. He ruffled Chris's hair. "He's pretty in that soft, boyish way."

Chris scooted away from him. "Don't do that, that's creepy."

"Jackie!" Christina yelled. She ran downstairs and plopped down on the chair. "Zeke called and said he's coming to town for a few days."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Lovely. It's always nice to have that psycho running around."

"Who is he?" John asked.

She just shrugged. "Just a guy we know. We don't know much about him. He just hangs out, does his own thing and helps us out if whatever we're fighting is threatening him. I know he keeps hell hounds as pets and Christina doesn't like that.

Christina glared at her older sister. "You wouldn't like them either if you had been mauled by them."

"True. You looked like you were Frankenstein's child for weeks after that."

"Bitch."

"Whore."

"Girls," Rupes said, clearly warning them to shut up.

Christina gave Jackie the finger. This made Jackie get up and start chasing her all around the lobby. After about five minutes, Christina pulled John up to his feet and used him as a human shield. "Save me Super Cena!"

"Why me?" he asked. "Why can't you use somebody else?"

"Because we are not superheroes," Chris replied, deadly serious about the matter. "But it would be cool if we were. I would be Iron Man."

Rupes grinned. "Yeah, with a little money you could actually build a suit like that. I would so be Wolverine. What about you Cody?"

"Batman, the greatest superhero ever."

"God, kill me now," Jackie grumbled. "I don't want to listen to this geek talk." She picked up John so she could get to Christina. This took John by surprise, because even though he had seen her strength, it was weird for her to use it on him.

"Jackie get your hand off his ass!" Rupes scolded.

Jackie grinned. "Oh come on Rupes. It's been awhile since I've gotten some."

Cody and Christina groaned. "We did not need to hear that," Cody complained.

"You can put me down now," John pointed out.

Jackie pouted. "Fine." She put him down and started walking towards the kitchen. "I'm going to get something to eat." She left the room but poked her head back in a minute later. "John?"

"Yeah?"

"Nice ass."

XXXXXX

"John! John! Wake up right now!"

John groaned. It was the next morning and he was really tired. He had stayed up until three in the morning playing Guitar Hero with Andy and Tony. He opened his eyes and saw Jackie standing over him. "What time is it?"

"Ten thirty."

"Ten thirty? You're never up before noon."

"I know, but Andy woke me up and said I needed to see something. So I went and saw it and now you need to see it."

"What is it?"

"The mother of Chris's child."

John was about to say he could see this chick later but Jackie literally picked him up and carried him downstairs. He moaned and groaned the whole way, but was literally cut off when he saw the girl. He did not believe his eyes. There was no way this was the right woman.

The woman standing in the lobby was Lita.


	6. Chapter 6

"Holy shit," John muttered. He could not believe that Lita was here. He hadn't seen her since the 15th anniversary special of Raw. It had been weird seeing her then because of everything she and Edge had put him through and it was weird seeing her now.

"Uh, hi John," Lita said awkwardly. She looked at Chris. "What--"

"Vampires ran him off the road and tried to eat him. Jackie saved him," Chris explained.

"Oh," she said quietly. She looked back at John. "A vampire attacked me at the concert I was at a few months ago. Chris saved me."

"So you thanked him by spreading your legs?" Leslie asked. She had a wicked grin on her face. John could tell she had a whole lot more insults just waiting to be unleashed.

"What?" Lita said, obviously shocked by that accusation.

Chris winced. "Don't listen to Leslie. She insults everybody."

"I'm not insulting her; I'm asking a legitimate question."

"No you're not," Chris objected. "You're being more of a bitch than usual. Lita's the mother of my child and you're going to keep your mouth shut about her."

"But it's Lita!" Damien objected. "How could you hook up with her? Everyone knows I'm the sexiest man here! If anyone should get the babe, it's me!"

Robin rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up Damien. We should be happy for Chris. He's got a girl and a baby on the way." She wrapped her arms around Lita's shoulder. "Ignore these crazy people, especially Leslie."

"Hey, I'm not that crazy!" Jackie objected. She looked at John. "Am I that crazy?"

"Of course not," John assured her. "Although she does have a point about everybody else. Especially Leslie."

Leslie glared at him. "Oh that's right, I forgot, I'm always the bad guy. Just because I have the good sense to question whether or not this baby is actually Chris's--"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lita interrupted angrily

"Leslie, sweetheart, stop right now," Clarissa warned her daughter.

John could tell by the look in the Leslie's eyes that she had no intention of stopping. "This isn't going to end well," he muttered.

Jackie grinned. "You're so right. I haven't seen Leslie in such fine form since she first came to live with us. The alpha bitch is being unleashed and it will get ugly."

Lita and Leslie were completely ignoring Jackie's commentary. The two of them were standing toe to toe at the center of the room. "Do you have some sort of problem with me being here?" Lita asked. "Because I'll be very interested to hear about it if you do."

Leslie smirked and moved some of Lita's hair out of the red head's face. "Oh Lita, it's not that I personally have a problem with you. It's just that we all know you've been a skank in the past and I just have to question whether or not you've really changed. I mean, you cheated on Matt Hardy, who was completely and totally in love with you and leave him for a sleaze ball who not only made you have live sex on TV, but is now cozying up to the ultra gross Vickie Gurerro."

"Leslie, are you going to get to the point any time soon?" Rupes asked.

"My point is, how do we know you're not still the big skank you turned yourself into for Edge? How do we know this is really Chris's baby? Maybe the real father doesn't want you now that he knocked you up so you're just using Chris because he's convenient? Hell, how do we know that you know who the father actually is?"

Lita punched Leslie in the face. Chris quickly pulled Lita back while Rupes caught Leslie before she could hit Lita back. "That's enough," Rupes growled at Leslie. "You've said enough. You don't need to punch the pregnant lady."

"That's where you and I disagree," Leslie growled back.

"Well bring it on then!" Lita yelled. She was trying to break away from Chris. "Pregnant or not, I'll still kick your ass!"

"Nobody is kicking anybody's ass," Jackie said. She put herself in between Lita and Leslie, just in case the two of them broke free and went after each other again. "That'll just make Rupes bitch, and a bitching Rupes is worse than dealing with Christina on the rag."

Christina threw a shoe at her sister. "Hey! Leave me and my PMS out of this!"

"Yeah Jackie," Cody agreed. "It's bad enough dealing with it once a month. You don't need to talk about it during the off season."

Lita leaned over towards John. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"You've gotten yourself into a very dysfunctional family," John replied. "Although why Leslie is targeting you so much, I don't know. She hasn't done that to me yet."

Leslie smirked. "I think the fact you've been spending all of your time with Jackie speaks for itself."

Jackie raised her eyebrows. "You really want to start up with me Leslie? Is that the territory you really want to go into right now? Because if you start with me, I guarantee getting punched in the face is not going to be the worst thing that will happen to you."

The two cousins stared at each other for a long time, years of mutual dislike apparent on their faces. Leslie chose to back down, although she didn't look happy about it. John just shook his head. Her obvious need to piss people off was going to land herself in some real trouble some day.

Spike came in just as Leslie left the room. "Who's that?" he asked, pointing at Lita.

"That's Lita," Rupes explained. "She's going to be staying with us for awhile."

"She's having Chris's baby," Robin added. "So don't go and randomly popping up behind her and scaring her so bad she falls down the stairs. That really hurt the last time that happened to me."

"No scaring," Spike said, indicating that he understood. He looked at John. "You're on TV."

John frowned. "Yes Spike. We've been over this. I'm a wrestler. It tends to happen on occasion."

Spike shook his head. "No, not that. You're on TV now. On the news."

Cody quickly went over to the television and turned it on to the news. Sure enough, right under the news anchor's body, was this headline: THE FBI INVESTIGATES THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOHN CENA.

"Uh oh," Jackie muttered. "Maybe you should have told somebody where you were after all."

John couldn't help but agree. "Someone get me a phone. I have to get this straightened out before this gets any worse."


	7. Chapter 7

John decided to call the Undertaker so the Deadman could help straighten the situation out. If anyone could talk sense into Vince McMahon and convince the Chairman the FBI search wasn't necessary, it was the Undertaker.

"Hello?" the Undertaker said gruffly as he answered the phone. It sounded like he had been napping or something.

"Hey it's Cena."

"Cena? Where the fuck have you been? Everybody's been freaking the fuck out here! Vince fucking had an FBI investigation started just to find you!"

"I know, I know! That's why I called you. I need you to convince Vince that's not necessary. I'm fine, I'm safe."

"Then why don't you tell him that?"

"Because he won't listen to me. He'll just think I'm being forced to say it because my kidnappers will hurt me if I don't. You know how overdramatic he is."

"Oh I know that. But let me ask you this: have you been kidnapped?"

"No! I got in a car wreck and then got attacked by vamp--bad people. But good people saved me and I'm staying with them."

Undertaker sighed. "John, it's okay. I know about vampires and all that fun stuff. Now be straight with me so I can decide if I want to help you or not."

So John told him everything that had happened from the time of the car wreck to the moment he saw the news report talking about his disappearance. After he was done, Undertaker really only had one thing to say.

"You're fucking crazy kid. I've heard of Apocalypse City's reputation and it's not a place you fuck around with."

"I know, I know. But I'd rather be here for the moment than at work. So will you help me out?"

"Okay," Undertaker finally agreed. "I'll talk to Vince and make something up. But if you die there, I'm going to find a way to resurrect you just so I can kill you myself."

John winced. Undertaker's version of tough love was kind of scary. "Thanks Taker. I'll talk to you later."

"You better."

John hung up the phone and turned to Jackie. "I should be covered for a little while longer now."

"Awesome," Jackie said. She was now eating a bag of kettle corn. "But aren't you going to get fired if you stay away for too long?"

John shrugged. "Who knows? If Undertaker comes up with some really good lie then I probably won't. But even if I am, I'll live with it."

She gave him a skeptical look. "You know, I think you're really just saying that because you're still hurting over the whole Mickie and Randy thing."

"Maybe I am," he admitted. "But I also know that I like being here. You guys are fighting the good fight and I want in."

"You say that now because you haven't lost anything yet. I've lost my parents, my brother, my friend Devon and countless acquaintances."

"But you keep fighting. That counts for something."

"It doesn't count for shit because it's the only thing I know how to do. It's not what I want to do; I do it because it has to be done."

The lights flickered and a loud alarm went off. Jackie just rolled her eyes and grabbed John's arm to keep him from falling over. "You see? This is probably the start of an apocalypse because they never set that thing off unless something really bad is invading the city. And you want to know what? I don't actually want to go out there and stop it. But I will because I like living better than dying and I can't watch TV in hell." Her eyes went wide after a moment. "Oh God, what if I do get to watch TV in hell but it's something like Barney or Teletubbies or Nitro after Vince Russo took over? Jesus Christ John, get a move on! We've got a world to save!"

John grinned at her little performance. She could be such a drama queen sometimes. They went back into the lobby and found that everyone was back there. "What is it?" Jackie asked.

Rupes pointed to the television screen. "It's something I never wanted to see again."

John looked at the TV and his jaw dropped open in shock. The news was now showing footage of twenty foot tall spiders destroying downtown Apocalypse City. "What in the hell are those?"

"Slarvocks," Jackie snarled. "Who the fuck summoned those things here?"

Damian shrugged. "I don't know but I'll kill them when we find out. We nearly got killed the last time and there were only six of them then."

"Well how many are there now?"

"Twelve."

Jackie let out a high pitched shriek and started kicking things around the room. "Damn, damn, damn it to hell, fuck shit bitch mother--"

Tony grabbed her by the arms and gave her a good shake. "Would you stop that? That is not helping. Now let's go through how we kill these things so those of us who have not fought them before can be brought up to speed."

"We've got to hit them with everything we've got," Andy answered before Jackie could. "Magic, fire, guns, explosives…the magic and the explosives seem to work the best."

"But where are we going to get explosives?" John asked.

Chris raised his hand. "I've kept some of Chad's stuff after I killed him. I figured I could use it if I ever decided to become an anarchist or if we needed to kill something really big again."

Lita frowned. "Who's Chad?"

"My brother," Chris replied. He winced as he saw the looks John and Lita were giving him. "Okay, I know on the surface that saying I killed my brother sounds bad, but there were circumstances. He was trying to kill me too so technically it was self defense on my part."

Rupes rolled his eyes. "Let's go through that whole story later. Just tell us where you kept his stuff so we can go get it."

"In the basement."

"You left that stuff in our hotel! Jesus Christ, what if somebody went down there and lit off some fireworks?"

Cody groaned. "Oh come on, I did that once! Learn to let it go Rupes!"

Jackie, Chris and Rupes went to go get the explosives while Clarissa and Andy passed around some guns. "I really never wanted to use these things again," Andy said regretfully. He loaded a semi-automatic and handed it to Christina. "You be careful with that."

Christina glared at him. "I know how to use one of these, thank you very much."

"Are we stealing a bus again?" Robin asked. "Because that was actually kind of fun the last time we did it."

Andy groaned. "No, we do not need to steal a--CODY GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE! CODY!"

Tony shook his head. "I'll be surprised if he doesn't wreck the bus on the way back here."

Lita pulled John off to the side. "Don't either of you find this to be at all insane? Normal people don't go off and fight giant spiders!"

"Yeah but nobody's normal here," John explained. "So you're point is kind of pointless."

Jackie, Rupes and Chris came back upstairs with a couple of duffle bags. Jackie led everyone out the door, including Lita (who was quickly told she was not allowed to stay alone in the hotel because there was a good chance now would be the time it would get attacked). To John's surprise, Cody actually DID find a bus to steal and he was already waiting for them.

"I freaking hijacked this thing," he said proudly as he shut the door behind them. "It was awesome. I kind of wish Jake was still here to see this. He would be so proud of me right now."

John noticed the dark look that came over Jackie's face. "What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing," Jackie said quickly, obviously lying. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready for what?" Lita asked nervously

Cody looked back at Jackie. "Hey I'm sorry I said the J-word. It's just that--"

"Don't," Jackie ordered. "Please not now." She closed her eyes and John could have sworn she was fighting back tears.

"Oh shit," he swore under his breath. He reached over to put a hand on her shoulder when the bus suddenly shot itself fifty feet up in the air. Lita and Leslie screamed while Rupes yelled at Jackie to slow the bus down. John cussed and gripped the back of his seat tightly. "Okay, nobody told me this was going to happen!"

"That's because you probably would have refused to get on," Jackie replied. She had opened her eyes and John was surprised to find that they had turned quite a few shades darker. "Get us downtown Cody. I'd like to get this over with before dinner time."


	8. Chapter 8

John wiped his sweaty hands against his jeans. Being in a flying bus was not as fun as one might think. Then again, he was in a flying bus full of guns and explosives and they were going to kill giant spider demons. That right there took the fun out of any situation.

"Right side, fire!" Jackie ordered.

Damian, Clarissa, Rupes and Andy started shooting down at a Slarvock that was standing on the remains of a gas station. The bullets may have dazed the demon slightly, but no real damage was done until Clarissa happened to shoot a gas tank. Then the entire area went up in flames, taking the demon with it.

"Holy shitake mushrooms!" Damian exclaimed. He grinned at Clarissa. "That was freaking sweet!"

In a way, it started their extermination mission with a bang. They flew around the city, killing every Slarvock they could find. Soon there was only one left. But that last one proved to be a lot sneakier than its buddies.

"Maybe it left town," Leslie suggested after twenty minutes of fruitless searching. "Or maybe somebody else killed it."

"Or maybe it's somewhere we haven't looked yet," Jackie replied.

"Where could it possibly be?" Cody asked. His excitement about driving a hijacked flying bus seemed to have disappeared by this point. "We've flown around this damn city twice and we still haven't seen--"

His words were cut off by something large and heavy hitting the side of the bus. John let out a loud stream of profanity as the bus spun out of control. This was not good at all. He could just imagine them hitting one of the many burning buildings and dying a horrible, flame filled death.

The bus came to a stop thirty feet away, thankfully not fulfilling John's vision. "Son of a bitch!" Jackie yelled. She got out of her seat and walked to the front of the bus. "Let me take over Cody. I have an idea."

"Oh no," Cody groaned. "This is going to be bad." Despite that prediction though, he let Jackie take the wheel.

Lita looked at Chris. "I thought you guys said I would be safer with you."

"And you are," Chris assured her. "Tell her John."

John nodded. "Yeah, you're totally safer here with us. Unless, you know, we all die or something like that. Then you're kind of screwed."

Chris glared at him. "Why would say that? You're supposed to just agree with me and then shut the hell up."

John shrugged. "Sorry dude. Honesty got the best of me."

"Everybody hang on to something," Jackie ordered. "This might get a little scary."

John started to ask what she meant by that but she was quickly answered that by stomping on the gas pedal. The bus shot forward so fast that everybody was literally pinned back into their seats. Jackie went straight to the Slarvock and it came straight back at them. But before John could truly comprehend that they were playing a game of Chicken, Jackie had literally driven the bus _through_ the demon and it split into many different messy pieces.

"Shibby!" Jackie shouted triumphantly. She got them back to the hotel in record time and landed the bus in the driveway. "What did you guys think?" she asked eagerly. "Was that awesome or what?"

"I think I might be sick," Lita said breathlessly.

"My hand won't stop shaking," Robin whispered.

"I think I wet myself," Tony admitted.

"I'm hungry," Spike added, not really dazed by what just happened.

John got out of his seat and slowly walked up to Jackie. His legs literally felt like they had been turned into rubber. "As neat as that little trick was, don't you ever do that again," he told her. He opened the doors and happily fell out to the ground. "Sweet ground! Oh how I've missed you."

"John…" Jackie said slowly.

"Ssshhhh!" John snapped. "I'm enjoying my time down here. Just step around me and give me like ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?"

"Okay, it might have to be like twenty. I think how scary your little idea was has just sunk in."

"Oh bite me John," Jackie said affectionately. She got out of the bus and went into the hotel, leaving the others outside to recover.


	9. Chapter 9

John found himself alone with Lita the next day. Neither of them said anything for awhile, mostly because they both felt really awkward. "So," John said slowly, trying to break up the awkwardness. "Why Chris?"

Lita rolled her eyes. "Why does everybody keep asking me that? Chris is a sweetheart. I like that about him."

"Yeah, he's better than your last boyfriend."

"Don't start on Edge. I really don't want to talk about him right now."

John held up his hands. "Sorry. I couldn't help getting a shot in."

"Well try harder. I can't take that crap right now."

"What's got your panties in a bunch?"

Lita sighed. "I'm pregnant, I'm emotional, I'm freaking terrified that something is going to eat the father of my child…" She stopped and shook her head. "I can't stand this. I don't know how they put up with this. There are freaking DEMONS everywhere in this city and nobody seems to give a damn."

"Lita, they grew up with all this crap," John explained. "It's nothing new to them. They fight the evil, they make sure the world doesn't end and then they go back to what they were doing before. I actually like the simplicity of it."

"Yeah, well, you don't have a baby to worry about," she muttered.

There was no arguing with that truth. Nobody else in the house was pregnant.

Cody came in the room and sat down in the seat next to John. "Oh how I hate my dad."

"What happened?" John asked.

"His trial started today and that's as far as I want to get into it," Cody explained. He propped his feet on to the coffee table. "I've got enough to worry about without his bullshit. Jackie's been acting really funky today, which is never a good sign."

John had noticed Jackie hadn't been herself all day. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nobody knows, which is also not a good sign. Damian said it was probably woman problems, but I think it's more serious than that."

"So go upstairs and ask her what's wrong," Lita suggested.

"But I just sat down!" Cody whined.

John rolled his eyes and got up. "Fine, I'll do it. Lazy ass."

"I'm not a lazy ass!" Cody yelled as John went upstairs. "I'm just anti-getting back up. There's a big difference!"

"Sure there is," John muttered. He knocked on Jackie's door. "Jackie? Can I come in?"

She didn't answer. He went ahead and opened her door. He found her staring out the window, seemingly lost in her own world. "Hey are you okay?" he asked. "I think the others are worried about you."

"They should be," she said softly. She refused to turn around and look at him. "We all need to be worried."

Okay, that wasn't good. "Why?" John asked. "Why do we need to be worried?"

Jackie sighed and turned around. Her skin had turned about five shades paler and her veins were actually starting to stick out. Her eyes had turned almost completely black. "He's coming."

John was absolutely shocked by her appearance. "What happened to you? Who's coming?"

"The demon knows he's coming," Jackie whispered.

"Who?" John nearly yelled. "Who is coming?"

"Harvey." The father that killed her mother and the man who she believed to be her father. The man that tried to kill her twice before.

The man who Cody once described as "The scariest mother fucker on the face of this planet."

John only had one response to that revelation: "Oh shit."


	10. Chapter 10

The entire hotel went into lockdown mode. Jackie put up every protection spell that she knew and Andy and Tony barricaded the windows and doors. Then everyone went into the lobby so they could explain what was going on to John and Lita.

Rupes decided to kick things off with some disturbing facts. "Demons used to rule this dimension thousands of years ago. But the demons back then were much bigger and much more deadly. Now eventually, humans became the dominant race and the old demons either died out or were banished to another dimension. However, there were these things called the Anduros. They did something nobody saw coming: they turned themselves partly human so they could stay in this world."

"That's really nice Rupes," John said slowly. "But what does that have to do with Harvey?"

"Harvey is an Anduro demon," Jackie said quietly. She was looking down, avoiding everybody's worried glances at her.

Oh. Well that explained the sudden story telling. "Okay, so Harvey's this really old demon," John said, getting with the program. "Jackie told me he was a demon before. But really, how bad is he? You guys fight demons all the time."

Jackie let out a small moan as she doubled over in pain. Andy managed to catch her before she fell to the floor.

"What's wrong with her?" Lita asked.

Rupes sighed. "I was getting to that. Harvey and Sarah had an affair, which resulted in Jackie. With Sarah being a witch, the powers she passed on to Jackie fed into the demon that Harvey passed along, which made Jackie about as strong as him. Unfortunately, he knows that and that's why he wants to kill her before she kills him."

"And is he doing this now?" John asked. He pointed to Jackie. "She looks likes something is fucking killing her."

"The demon," Jackie hissed. "The demon inside me…it knows he's coming…it wants out." She pushed Andy and collapsed to the ground. Everybody but John backed away from her. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "Get away John," she ordered.

He shook his head. "Jackie…"

"GET BACK!" she snarled. She crawled behind the receptionists desk to escape from their stares.

"Don't go back there," Rupes warned John. "She's unpredictable when she gets like that. She might accidentally hurt you."

John was about to snap back when the television turned on all by itself. Spike let out a yell. "Jackie! Harvey has hijacked our TV!"

Harvey chuckled. He was sitting in a classroom with a bunch of terrified children. His face was scarred and twisted into a permanent sneer. His cold black eyes had no trace of humanity in them. "How observant of you Spike. Tell me, what are you going to notice next?" His eyes fell on John and Lita. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Some fresh meat?"

"What do you want Harvey?" Rupes asked.

"I want my dear daughter Jackie," Harvey replied. "I've been here for several hours and she still won't come out and play. It's forced me to up the stakes in our little game." He waved at the kids behind him. "I've decided to play a game. It's called Let's See How Many Of These Brats Have To Die Before Jackie Gets In The Game. Oh and I also brought in someone else." He reached down and pulled up a vampire by the hair. "I brought back Jake. You remember Jake, don't you Jackie? Your undead ex-boyfriend that broke your heart into a million--"

An ax was hurled into the TV, effectively destroying it. "Holy shit!" Leslie yelled, taking the words right out of John's mouth. John turned around to see who threw the ax and gasped. Jackie was standing back up, but she looked worse than ever. The veins that had been showing before had turned black and had raised up above the skin. Her body was covered in a black and red leather body armor. Her eyes were about as black as Harvey's were.

"I think she's definitely ready to get into the game," Tony muttered.

Andy shook his head. "Jackie, you can't go after him. He's just trying to draw you out. We don't even know if he really has all those kids or if he's just trying to trick you."

"He's just trying to trick me," Jackie said. Her voice had a coldness that John hadn't heard before. "He's standing outside the barrier of the protection spell with Jake. He does have him."

John decided to speak up. "Speaking of Jake, did you know he was a vampire before you started dating him? Could you not pass up that cliché?"

"John, now is not the time to be asking that," Christina warned him.

Jackie growled and stormed upstairs. They could hear her punching the walls and slamming doors for several minutes.

Clarissa sighed and put on a fake smile. "Anyone want dinner? I'm starving."


	11. Chapter 11

Lita stared at Clarissa in disbelief. "How can you think about food at a time like this? There's a psycho standing out there ready to kill us!"

Clarissa shrugged. "I just figured if we are going to die, we should do it on a full stomach."

Rupes shook his head. "Nobody's going to die. We just have to--"

A loud explosion from outside interrupted him. Everybody stopped and looked at each other. "You don't think Jackie went out there, do you?" Andy asked nervously.

"There's only one way to find out," John said. He ran out the front door and looked around. His stomach sank as he saw that Jackie was now out there. She picked up a parked car and tossed it at Harvey's head. He swatted it away easily, causing it to fly into a neighbor's house.

"I really hope Mrs. Anderson is not home," Robin said. "She was nice. She always made us cookies."

"Jackie get back over here this instant!" Christina yelled. She was trying to sound angry but John could hear the fear in her voice.

Jackie ignored her completely. She lunged at Harvey and then John lost track of what was going on. The two of them were moving so fast that they were just a blur. "Holy shit," he said under his breath as he watched the blur go up the street. "I can't even tell who's hitting who."

"That doesn't really comfort me," Rupes muttered. He pulled out his cell phone and started dialing a number. "Jake better still be alive because he's going to make sure she comes back in one piece."

"He's a vampire Rupes; he's not actually alive," Andy said. "And put it on speaker phone because I want to yell at that jackass."

John frowned. "Why can't we just go out there and get Jackie ourselves?"

Chris picked up a rock from the ground and tossed it towards the street. It bounced off the barrier like it was a brick wall. "That's why. Nobody's getting in or out unless Jackie takes down the barrier or she dies.

"Rupes," Jake's voice said breathlessly. He could be seen pulling himself to his feet outside the barrier. Even when he was obviously in pain and he was all bloody, he was still the definition of tall, dark and gorgeous.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Andy demanded. "I thought I told you if you were going to go away, then you have to stay away."

"I was away," Jake snapped. "Harvey found me and drug me back here. You really think I want to make things harder for Jackie than they have to be?"

Rupes sighed. "Can you follow her and make sure she doesn't get killed? We can't get out of this barrier."

"Yeah," Jake agreed. He hung up and took off running. He was gone almost faster than a blink of an eye.

Rupes put his cell phone away. "Everybody back in the hotel," he ordered. "There's no use to just stand out here."

"What about Jackie?" John demanded. "There's got to be a way to get out there and help her."

"Wasn't he paying any attention to my little demonstration?" Chris whispered to Lita. "There's no getting out of here now. Jackie's pretty much perfected the protection spells."

Lita shook her head. "He's a very stubborn man. Sometimes it's endearing, other times it's annoying."

John shook his head. He could not just accept that they could just sit here and do nothing. Not after everything he had been through for the past few weeks. "There's got to be a way to get the barrier down," he insisted. "What goes up has to come down. We've just got to find a way."

Spike grabbed John's arm and started pulling him back towards the hotel. "We'll try," he said. "We go to Jackie's room. She has stuff."

"Guys, we've tried to take one of these things down before," Rupes tried to explain as they went back in the hotel. "It requires more power than any of us actually have."

John and Spike ignored him. They went straight up to Jackie's room, closely followed by Andy, Christina and Tony. "Rupes is right you know," Andy said as he closed the door behind them. "We might just have to sit here and wait."

"Then why are you even bothering?" John asked.

Andy shrugged. "Maybe I'm stubborn too."

Christina reached under Jackie's bed and pulled out several spell books. "There's got to be something in one of these things that can help us," she said. "Even if she messed with the spell and made it stronger, there still has to be something in here that can help us."

John took one of the books and started flipping through it. "Doesn't this thing have an index?" he asked after a few minutes of not finding anything.

Christina shook her head. "It's one of the down side of these things."

Spike opened his mouth to say something, but then he frowned. "Uh oh," he muttered.

"What is it?" Andy asked. "What's wrong?"

"Bad feeling," Spike replied. He ran out of the room without saying anything else.

John, Andy and Christina looked at each other. "What the hell was that about?" John asked.

Andy shook his head. "I don't know. Let's go find out."

They ran after Spike, who was currently running down the stairs and out the front door. Rupes was directly on his heels. "Damian, clear the couch!" Rupes yelled. "Jake said we're going need somewhere to put Jackie!"

John's stomach sank. That didn't sound good. He ran back outside just in time to see a small hole opening in the barrier. Jake, with a bloody Jackie in his arms, squeezed through it before it shut again.

"She got the bastard pretty good," Jake said. He looked as worried as John felt. "They were really putting the hurt on each other. But then I saw--"

He was interrupted by Christina's screaming. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head and Andy had to catch her before she fell to the ground. She jerked around like she was having a seizure, and when she finally snapped out of it, she looked sick to her stomach.

"You saw it didn't you?" Jake asked.

Christina nodded. "Oh God, how are we supposed to fight all that?"

"What is it?" John asked. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Death," Jackie gasped out. She struggled against Jake until he put her down. "Death by ten thousand evil things."

"Who's death?" Spike asked.

Jackie laughed humorlessly. "Everybody's."


	12. Chapter 12

"Okay, who wants to say it?" Cody asked. He looked at everybody. "Come on people, Harvey's got a gigantic army and there's no chance in hell we can face these odds. One of you has to say it."

"Why don't you just say it?" John snapped. His concern for Jackie left him in no mood to play along with Cody's games.

"Because they get all pissy at me when I get too pessimistic," Cody replied.

Christina sighed. "Fine, I'll say it. We're fucked."

Cody nodded. "Thank you. We are so fucked that we don't even know which way is up."

"If we could eliminate Harvey, most of the army would disband itself," Jake said. He stepped out of the corner he had been brooding in. "The fear of them is one of the few things keeping them all together."

Damian snorted. "Well that's great Jake. That's just great. But the only person here who even has a shot at taking Harvey out is not looking too good at the moment."

"I'm right here you jackass!" Jackie snapped. She pushed Rupes away and tore off the bandages he had been putting on her for the past ten minutes. She glared at Jake. "You know, I had a shot at killing him before you interfered."

Jake glared back at her. "He had the upper hand and you know it. Excuse me for not wanting you to die."

"What do you care? You left me. Don't start acting like you suddenly care again."

"I've always cared and I always will. Don't start acting like a bitch just because you had to be saved."

"That's enough!" Rupes shouted. He looked pissed at both of them. "We don't have time for this! Harvey and his army aren't going to wait long to try to kill everybody so we need to come up with a way to kill them first."

Chris raised his hand. "I don't know about Harvey, but I think I have an idea about what we can do about that army. We call a Code Black."

John frowned. "What's that?"

"A Code Black is what we use when the situation is as bas as it can get. Everybody in the city that can fight will join us, which will give us the numbers advantage immediately."

Rupes nodded. "It's only been used a few times within the past three decades. Usually the city just goes through it's share of protectors. First it was me and my friends and now it's all of us. The situation has to suck really badly to get everybody fighting."

"Well this qualifies as truly sucking," Jackie muttered. She stood up and stretched. She was already partly healed from the fight. "But that just leaves Harvey. We can kill his army until the cows come home but it doesn't really matter because he can still end the world all on his own."

Lita tentatively raised her hand. "How hard is he to kill exactly?"

"Like almost impossible," Jackie replied. "Like me."

"Well what if you just took away his power so he would be incapacitated and can't hurt anyone else? That might buy you time to find a way to really kill him."

"Yeah, but his power is so much in him now that taking it away would just…" Jackie suddenly stopped. It looked like a light bulb had just gone off over her head. "That would just kill him." She picked up Lita and spun her around. "You are a fucking genius! That really will kill him if I can just pull it off." She set Lita down on Chris's lap and then kissed him. "Thank you for knocking her up." She let out a whoop and then ran upstairs.

John looked at Rupes. "Do you really think she can pull that off?"

Rupes shrugged. "If anybody can do it, it'll be her. The only problem is that those kinds of spells are really only effective if they're done face to face. And her being face to face with Harvey…well, it's only going to get nastier from here."

Jake smirked. "Trust me Rupes, that's exactly how she wants this. She wants the nastiest fight possible so she can feel even more vindicated when she finally kills him."

"And how do you know that?" John asked.

"We all know that," Leslie answered before Jake could. "Jackie may be a freak, but when it comes to Harvey, she's a freak with a mission. She's going to kill him for killing her parents and ruining her life. It's a story as old as time."

"I like stories," Spike said suddenly. "Somebody read me a story."

Rupes shook his head. "Not now Spike. Maybe later if we're still alive. Right now, we've got a Code Black to announce."


	13. Chapter 13

Even though John knew what a Code Black and he knew how many people actually did live in Apocalypse City, he was shocked by the amount of people waiting at City Hall by the time he and the gang got there. With the exceptions of the really young or the really old, pretty much everybody was there. "Wow," he said under his breath. "This is insane."

"Uh huh," Chris agreed. His mind was obviously on Lita and his unborn baby, who were still behind the safety of the protection spell at the hotel. Obviously, there was no way they could let her fight in her condition.

Rupes led them up on the platform that was set up and grabbed a microphone. "Okay, everybody quiet down. Shush, I'm talking here."

Jackie grabbed the microphone from him. "SHUT UP!" she screamed.

The crowd went completely quiet. She still looked like a scary demon, which prompted everybody to listen to her. Rupes took the microphone back from her. "Thank you Jackie for bursting everybody's eardrum," he said with fake gratefulness. He looked out at the crowd. "Okay people, I called a Code Black for a reason. Harvey's back in town, he has a gigantic fucking army and if you don't fight with us, we all die. And since I know you're all anti-dying, you won't mind helping us out a little."

"And what if we do mind?" some guy yelled out.

Jackie took the microphone again. "You need to ask yourself what you're more afraid of: Harvey's army, or me."

"Yeah okay, I'm in," the guy said quickly.

"This isn't exactly the most inspirational fight speech I've ever heard," John whispered to Andy.

Andy grinned. "Yeah well, sometimes you just got to lay down the law and tell everyone this is how it's going to be."

Now watching an army of a couple million people trying to get organized was quite the see for John. But given the circumstances, he really didn't want to be seeing it. Most of these people had families and a lot of them were going to die. Even he could die before this was all said and done. But if that bothered anybody else, they weren't showing it. To them, all this craziness was perfectly natural. It was an aspect of life here he couldn't just comprehend.

Rupes gathered the gang around him right before everybody was ready to set out. "Okay, you all know I don't like making big emotional speeches."

"Yeah, because you're really bad at them," Leslie interrupted.

"Hush you," Rupes ordered. "I just wanted you all to know that I love you and if I do die, you still do not have permission to kidnap Jeff Hardy."

"What?" Jackie, Christina, Robin and Leslie whined.

"Why not?" Andy and Tony asked at the same time.

Cody rolled his eyes. "Oh God, here we go again."

"You have John Cena right here!" Rupes pointed out. "You have your real life wrestler right here. Fulfill your weird sexual fantasies with him!"

"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" John asked.

Damien shook his head. "Nope. You just got to shut up and watch the catfight unfold."

Jackie pointed at John. "Look, I had plans to kidnap him since 2002. But I've had my sights set on Jeff Hardy since 1999. And you will not spoil those plans for me Rupes."

"Besides, if she gets Jeff, she said she'll get me Matt," Christina pointed. "Because the bitch won't SHARE Jeff with me."

"Who has the super powers here Christina? I do, that's who. And since I'm the strongest, I get both Jeff and John."

"No way, you have to share John," Robin insisted. "Because I want both him and Randy Orton."

Clarissa groaned. "People, we are in the middle of an apocalypse here! Do we really have the time to talk about wrestlers like they're Prada bags?"

Jackie glared at her. "We are not talking about the wrestlers like they are Prada bags. We are talking about them being our sex slaves. Get it right."

John looked at Damian and Cody. "How often do they fight about this?"

"Way too much," Damian answered. "I'm surprised the girls haven't tied you to a bed and forcibly taken you yet."

"Oh we will do that, don't you worry about that," Jackie said. She walked towards the front doors and everybody started following her. "All we have to do is get past--" she opened the door right at that moment just to find Harvey and his army standing right there. "Ah shit!" she said. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I used to live in this place remember?" Harvey said. He actually seemed amused by her reaction. "I noticed everybody was coming here and I figured you guys called a Code Black, so I decided to join the party."

John looked at Rupes. "So much for this being a great plan."

"Hey! We've won battles with absolutely no plan before. This is not the worst thing that--"

BANG!

Everybody jumped about a foot in the air. Jackie and Harvey were surrounded in smoke and the next thing everyone saw was the two of them flying out through the doorway and into the street.

Leslie rolled her eyes. "Those two can never let anybody finish a sentence." She held up her sword and motioned for the demons to bring it. "Come on you ugly bastards. I have cheerleading practice in the morning and the sooner we kill you, the sooner I get my beauty sleep."

The demons looked at each other in confusion. Even John stared at Leslie in amazement. She really thought there was going to be cheerleading practice after all this? He looked at Clarissa, who just shrugged.

"That's my girl," she said proudly. "She'll always help out in the end, even if her priorities are a little screwed up."


	14. Chapter 14

Now John had seen and done some things in Apocalypse City he had never believed possible, but right now, this was the biggest and the scariest thing ever. He and Rupes led the charge against the demons and they both discovered something: it was not easy for this many humans and demons to try to fight inside city hall. In fact, it was damn near impossible to move. "Okay, okay, time out!" John yelled. He felt like he was trapped inside a mosh pit, only this was much worse. "Everybody outside! Go outside right now!"

Thankfully everyone decided to listen to him. Nobody wanted to be caught in the evil and cramped mosh pit of doom. The demons backed out first and the people followed them. "That's better," John told them. "Now let's fight bitches!"

"Let's fight bitches?" Rupes repeated.

"Just roll with me on this one dude."

Everyone else seemed perfectly willing to go along with his exclamation. Actually, they may have been too willing because everything broke down into absolute chaos. Fists, fangs, swords, teeth, stakes--you name it, it was flying everywhere. John started trying to kill any demon or vampire that came his way. Standing here, fighting like there was no tomorrow--it was a rush like nothing else in the world. Not even the other fights he had taken part of here in Apocalypse City compared to this one. Maybe it was because for the first time, he wasn't positive they were going to win.

"John, behind you!" Cody yelled.

John whirled around and kicked a weird looking blue demon that had been trying to sneak up on him. "What the hell is on that things face?" he yelled as he whacked off its head.

"I think it's tentacles!" Rupes yelled as he staked a vampire.

"What?"

"TENTACLES!"

"Oh." John thought he had heard something else entirely. That just showed where his mind was these days. He swung his sword around and sliced a different demon in half. That turned out to be a bad idea because the thing's goopy green blood exploded from its body and got all over him. "Okay EW! What the hell?"

Damien grabbed John and used him as a springboard to jump up and kick a scaly looking fish demon right in the head. "Yeah, I was going to tell you, don't slice a slime demon in half. It just ends in badness."

"Well I guess a late warning is better than no warning," John said. "Oh wait, no it's not!"

"Hey man, don't get pissy with me. I can't worry about you being covered with slime when we're in the middle of a fight like this. What the hell are you thinking man?"

John opened his mouth to reply when he happened to look up and see something falling out of the sky. Actually, it wasn't so much as falling as it was diving. It was moving so fast that he couldn't tell what it was, but it landed right in the middle of the army of demons, squashing some of it and creating a giant crater in the middle of the street. The fighting stopped right in its tracks as everybody just stared at the hole.

"Holy shit!" Cody finally yelled. "What the hell was that?"

Harvey and Jackie slowly emerged from what used to be Ash Street. "Okay, now that hurt," Harvey complained. He cracked his neck a couple of times and looked at the crows watching him. "Did we tell you that you could stop?"

Jackie lunged herself at Harvey again and they went flying into the Pizza Hut down the street. This made everyone else start fighting again. Everyone but John that is. For some reason, he found himself moving away from all the chaos and heading to where Jackie was. He couldn't explain why he was doing this. He just felt very compelled to go help her somehow.

"Come on Jackie," John heard Harvey cackle. "You've got to want it. You've got to want to kill me."

John entered the Pizza Hut just in time to see Jackie kick Harvey right in the face. "Go Jackie!" he cheered.

Jackie glared at him. "Get out of here John. Now!"

"Oh come on Jackie, let him stay," Harvey said. He sounded surprisingly cheerful for a guy who's nose had obviously just been broken. "I want your new boyfriend here to watch me kill you." He grinned at John. "I'm her father you know. Her mother screamed my name as I fucked her and then she begged for mercy as she died…

John's jaw dropped at the look of pure rage that appeared in Jackie's eyes. The comment about her mom finally caused her to just snap. She picked up a broken beam that had come from the ceiling and started hitting Harvey with it as hard as she could. "You son of a bitch! Die, die, die, die, die!"

Harvey managed to catch the beam and grabbed Jackie by the throat. John ran to save her and got the hardest kick to the chest he had ever received. He flew back and nearly went through the wall. Jackie elbowed Harvey's arm so hard that it broke and she put her hand on his chest. He screamed in pain and a black light engulfed both of them. John could only watch in shock as Jackie drained the life out of Harvey. He wasn't even sure if that was what she was doing, but it was the only way he could describe what he was seeing. Suddenly the blackness turned to white and there was a loud bang that made him try to jump back and take cover. When he realized nothing had actually exploded, he opened his eyes and saw Jackie looking down at the shriveled remains that used to be Harvey. "Holy shit," he said in disbelief. He got up and slowly approached Jackie. "Hey, are you okay?"

Jackie didn't look up for a long time. "He's dead," she whispered. Suddenly she grinned. "He's dead!" She grabbed John by the arms and planted a big kiss on his lips. "HE'S DEAD! WHOOOOO!" She cackled insanely and ran out of the building.

John just stood there, not sure what to think. "Okay, the award for the Best Ric Flair Impersonation is going to Jackie this year," he muttered to himself. He grabbed his dropped sword and cut what was left of Harvey up into little pieces. _Just in case_, he thought to himself. _It's better to be safe than sorry._


	15. Chapter 15

John rubbed his hands nervously. It had been three days since the big battle and he and the others had spent most of their time sleeping and eating. But this morning he had gotten a call from Undertaker and apparently Vince wasn't buying whatever the Deadman had told him to John's absence as a good excuse anymore. It was officially time to choose: the WWE or Apocalypse City.

"You can do both," Jackie told him. She was sitting next to him, flipping through the newest issue of _Cosmopolitan_. "You can go wrestle and come back here on your days off. Or I can make up a little thing that will teleport you from place to place so you don't have to travel as much. You don't have to give anything up."

"Yeah, but I don't know if I want to keep both," John admitted. "Being here and being there are two very consuming and demanding things. I can handle a lot of things, but I don't think I can handle that work load."

Jackie shrugged. "Well then I guess you're going to have to choose whichever one is going to make you happier." She patted him on the leg and stood up. "I'll give you time to think on your own."

He watched her walk away. Which one made him happier? The wrestling itself made him extremely happy, but all the travel, the constant aches and pains, the barely being home, the politics and all the crap that went on backstage had taken a toll on him. As for Apocalypse City…well what could he say? It was the definition of terrifying. Knowing that he could die at any time was a very scary thing…and it made him feel even more alive. Saving the world, it gave him purpose. And Jackie and the others gave him a family.

Knowing what he had to do, he picked up the phone and called Vince McMahon. He was on hold for several minutes before the chairman finally answered him. "Mr. McMahon, this is John Cena."

"Hello Cena," Vince said. His voice sounded a little colder than usual. "You've had us very worried about you."

"I apologize. Everything with me just happened all at once and things have only begun to settle down again." He left out the part that all the settling down meant was that trouble was going to start up again very, very soon.

"I see. Well we need to talk about your return."

John sighed. "I don't want to come back."

There was about a minute of shocked silence. "Excuse me?" Vince finally said.

"I want to be released from my contract. I want to stay where I'm at. I'm happy here, though only God knows why."

"John, you shouldn't be making rash decisions--"

"I've been thinking about this for awhile now."

"If this is about money--"

"This isn't about money. If it was about money, I would have come right back. I have to do what feels right to me and my heart and my head are telling me to stay here."

"Then you're heart and head are retarded then," Leslie said suddenly. She was on the line too.

"Bitch shut up!" Jackie snapped. "He's staying here with us! We're supposed to encourage that."

"Yeah," Christina added. "How are we supposed to take advantage of him if he leaves?"

"You are not taking advantage of him!" Rupes said in exasperation.

"That's what you think," Jackie told him.

"Who in the hell are you people?" Vince demanded to know.

John sighed. "Guys, can you please get off the phone? I'm in the middle of an important conversation."

"Sorry John," Jackie said. "But I'm going to make this easier for you. Put down the phone for a second."

John set the phone down on the coffee table and waited. About thirty seconds later it began to glow and vibrate really hard. "What the hell?" he said under his breath.

It stopped about ten seconds later. "John! Get back on the phone!" Leslie yelled.

John picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"John, if you really want your release, I will give it to you," Vince said. He sounded like he was in a daze. "I will fax it to you as soon as possible. You are always going to be welcome to come back if you choose to."

"Thanks Vince," John said slowly. He hung up the phone. "Jackie! What did you do?"

He found Jackie and the others sitting in the kitchen. The other phone was on the table and it was obvious the speaker had been on. "What did you do to him?" he asked again.

Jackie shrugged. "I just made him see that being here was what you really wanted. I didn't hurt him or anything."

Damian and Cody grinned stupidly at him. "You like us, you really like us!" they exclaimed at the same time.

John rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up."

"Well if you're staying, it calls for a celebration," Rupes said. "Who wants to go to Razor's to eat?"

"Wasn't Razor that orange demon I met right after I woke up from that car accident?" John asked.

Jackie nodded. "Yup. He serves the best Italian food ever made. It is fucking awesome."

"He serves food."

"He owns a restaurant," Rupes explained. "He had to go out of town not long after you got here because his cousin got killed by an angry mob in Romania. We were going to tell you that but we kind of forgot to bring it up again."

John shook his head. "Is there anything else you need to mention?"

Jackie nodded. "Yes. Tonight us girls are taking you. We will be gentle if you really insist on it. But if you start whining, I will gag you. Understand?"

John stared at her for several minutes. "Uh…okay."

"Okay?" Cody said in disbelief. "How can you be okay with this plan?"

"Dude, if all these girls told you they wanted to jump your bones, what would you say?"

Cody's eyes widened. "Oh, good point." He looked at the girls. "Would you guys--"

"No," they said before he could even finish the sentence.

Cody glared at them. "I hate you all. I hope something eats you."

A purple demon with gills jumped through the window at that moment. John grabbed Jackie's knife and threw it right into the demon's head. It fell to the floor dead. Everyone stared at it for a moment before glaring at Cody.

Cody put his hands up. "Okay, that could have happened whether I said that or not."

John sighed. The fun never stopped for them. And for better or worse, he was going to be a part of that fun now for good. _Jesus, what did I get myself into?_


End file.
